What the Apollo 8 crew saw that no one had ever seen before with their own eyes

The arrival of man on the Moon is undoubtedly the most memorable moment of the space race, but there were others that were very important for humanity but are less talked about.

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Until 1959, 41% of the lunar surface, what we call the far side of the Moon, had not been seen by any human being. The first time that this part of our satellite could be photographed was in that year, when the Soviets launched the Luna 3 spacecraft, whose photos were published in 1960, showing the whole world what for millennia gave rise to numerous questions, dreams and enigmas. In December 1968 three men, Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell Jr. and William A. Anders, were the first human beings to contemplate the far side with their own eyes on the Apollo 8 mission. Since then, only a few astronauts have had this privilege.

Today NASA has published a beautiful video that shows us up close the hidden face of the Moon, with data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) launched in 2009. The video recreates what the Apollo 13 astronauts saw, in this case, on their 1970 trip: